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23 September 2005

Not Without My Dogs

Marie Knoblock was a regular on the Chow Chow message board back when I ran the Pet Care Forum on AOL, and she not only came and visited the new Chow Chow Forum when I moved to DogHobbyist.com, she gave me photos of her dogs to use on the website. Her dog Jimmi's smiling face greets the visitors to the DogHobbyist Chow Chow Forum to this day.

But Jimmi smiles only in photos now, because he, along with Marie and her other dog, drowned in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, when flood waters rapidly filled their home. Her daughter Kim, her daughter's dog, a house guest, and her poodle, escaped through the attic roof, but Marie, 63, and her two chows didn't make it past the second floor.

What would you do, faced with that terrible choice? Like Marie, if
told to leave, there's only one thing I would say: Not without my dogs.

In previous disasters, response to this type of thing has usually been disapproval, a sort of “tsk tsk” reaction that these people have only themselves to blame for putting animal lives ahead of human lives, for putting themselves at risk for a mere pet. But it seems there has been a sea change since the last disaster took its toll, because in the face of Hurricane Katrina, pet owners, veterinarians, the media, humane organizations, and aid groups are instead asking if there isn’t a better way.

Lucy Morgan, the Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the St. Petersburg Times in hurricane-plagued Florida, wrote an editorial a few days after Katrina made landfall, asking “Will we remember the lessons of the storm?” and pointing out one major reason that evacuation orders are defied:

You won't catch us leaving Lewis and Clark, our Siamese gang of two. Mandatory evacuation orders won't ever work until we have enough shelters for Floridians and their dogs, cats and birds. Leaving an animal to face certain death is not an acceptable compromise.

Valerie Bennett, 34, said rescuers wouldn't let her bring her dogs with her when she and her husband were evacuated from a New Orleans hospital by boat. They were allowed just one item, and that was her husband's medicine. She says she offered her wedding ring and her mother's wedding ring, but they wouldn't relent.

One little boy cried so much when police took his dog that he threw up.

Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, who's been rescuing pets, said he found one dog tied up beneath an overpass. Next to it was an unopened can of dog food with a sign that read, "Please take care of my dog, his name is Chucky."

As I've written before, my friend Phyllis DeGioia has dubbed this sea change “The Snowball Effect,” after the little white dog pulled from the arms of a sobbing child as he was evacuated from the Superdome. She is leading an effort to encourage the Red Cross to do as some other disaster assistance groups have done, and set aside a certain percentage of sheltering facilities for people with companion animals, and to make some pet supplies, such as disposable muzzles, part of their standard disaster provisions.

I support Phyllis’ effort and encourage everyone to do as she asks and contact their local chapter of the American Red Cross and make their views known. Do it here. (Phyllis has also put her money where her mouth is, and taken in some four-legged Katrina refugees to foster until their families can be located. Gina blogs about it at the Bark here, here, here, and here.)

But beyond taking that action, consider this: Marie's story is not unique. There are hundreds of people dead today because they wouldn’t leave their pets behind when ordered to evacuate in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Even if you don’t think that pets are important, even if you would walk away from yours to save your own life, or have no pets and don’t understand this issue on a personal level at all, the fact is many people consider animals family members. Like it or not, understand it or not, they would no more leave them to face suffering, abandonment, and starvation than they would leave their own children. It doesn’t really matter that you might disapprove of this, because your disapproval doesn’t change the simple reality, that sometimes people love their animals enough to die for them.

If we prefer not to see that happen, we have to accept that the “tsk tsk” approach has been a failure. Not only are people no more likely to abandon their pets than in previous disasters, they seem to be even less likely to do so. And social perception of this reality appears to be coming around to acceptance, understanding, and even sometimes grudging admiration for those who stayed behind, treading water with a dog or cat clutched in their arms, refusing help if meant leaving their animals behind.